It’s Autumn on the 365 Day Nature Play Challenge! A new post with the joys of the season. It includes stringing conkers; drawing faces on acorns and cobnut type things that we found on a corkscrew willow; picking pears; flying sycamore helicopters; making a harvest festival animal feeder and then turning it into a home for woodlice; Writing in the dew on the car windscreen; Picking sloes and making them into a fairy drink; gathering pine cones and finding an awful lot to do with leaves.
116 – CONKERS!
Wednesday 3 September. Cloudy with rain. 18°C
Conkers came early to us this year. When we were exploring the river in Pontypridd a few weeks ago, we found a broken off branch on the beach with 9 or 10 intact conker cases attached. We carefully removed them and took them home and for the past two weeks they’ve been in the kitchen, getting browner and slowly opening. They seem to be ripening early this year. Normally, we start looking for them when B goes back to school but on her first day back we realise there are already lots on the roads around us. Every journey becomes side tracked by exploring gutters and pavements for more.
We normally pick them up, take them home and then don’t know what to do with them. Sometimes we paint them, or use them as Christmas baubles. This year, given the challenge, we’re putting a bit of effort in and threading strings through. I’ve got some paper coated wire (easier to thread) and a little palm drill (had no idea it was called this but google suggests so – basically a pointy screw type thing with a handle) which works really well to make a hole. We feed the wire through and make a little knot underneath. Then we try and hit each other’s conker as we believe is traditional…
It’s REALLY hard. We totally fail but we laugh so much failing that we don’t care. Our conkers never connect, but the string does and they wind round each other so we can yank them out of each others hands. I’ve heard there are still conker fighting contests in some parts of the country. We should look them up and see how the pros do it.
PS…
A few weeks later and we get a fantastic demonstration of conker fighting from some helpful parents. They get very competitive and their knuckles get redder and redder as their teenage children look on with worry and concern. Not sure B and I are going there – we’ll stick with the giggles.
112 – Making people out of acorns and cobnut type things…
Tuesday 9 September. Rainy. 18°C
We’ve been collecting acorns as well as conkers… we keep looking for fidgets, but they’re less easy to discover now they’re fully grown, so we want something else to do with our finds. Then we see a shop selling little wooden acorns with faces drawn on them…
My faces are predictable – B has a lot more fun. She does a little sleeping face and the cups look just like hats. Then we branch out and have a go at drawing on the cobnut type things that fall off the willow in the garden… The green base is marvellous – it does a brilliant hat, or hair. B has a lot of fun with a sad face with hair that lifts off like a wig… and one where you only see the nose and mouth because the hair/hat is covering the eyes.
The cobnut ‘hats’ shrivel after a few days and the acorns turn brown. That’s ok. Fun was had.
106 – Picking pears
Tuesday 16 September. Mixed. 17°C
Autumn, in our house, means pears… we planted the pear tree the year B was born an it’s now quite large and very fruitful. We’ve been watching them all summer waiting for the right moment and reckon now is the time. B pulls a few off, then gets bored and wanders off. Clearly more of an adult satisfaction. We now have a house full of pears needed employment. We find a way to turn them into birds… which is more fun.
99 – Flying sycamore helicopters
Monday 22 September. Sunny. 17°C
Who doesn’t like flying helicopters?! Picking them up and dropping them and watching them spin round and round. Endless entertainment for autumn walks and mucking about time.
We find an accessible tree branch of them this year and get handfuls and throw them in bunches. Last year, one of B’s friends pointed out that if you throw them UP they take longer to come down. I’m still amazed in 49 years I hadn’t realised that.
97 – Making a harvest festival animal feeder
Friday 26 September. Sunny. 17°C
The garden is full of decaying over ripe fruit. We’ve got pears everywhere, apples from next door, and lots of over ripe tomatoes. We’re wondering if we can make them into something? The rabbits will eat them, and there’s a squirrel who visits the garden in the afternoons… and passing birds? We find an old litter tray that’s hanging about, empty the decaying flower pots into it and stick some leak ends in the corners. Then B goes off to see what she can find.
She comes back with over ripe tomatoes and blackberries and pears with holes in. We dig out a couple of functioning herb plants we could dig in for some greens and find some bird seed. B sets to work.
She’s proud of the finished article and we put it out in the garden. We’re wondering if we’ll tempt some birds we haven’t seen before…or some colourful slugs… but the rabbits get there first. It’s thoroughly demolished in a few hours, except for the leaks, which apparently aren’t interesting.
94 – Turning the harvest festival feeder into a home for woodlice
Monday 29 September. Sunny. 15°C
The harvest festival animal feeder has been out a few days now and is looking grimy. I think it’s time for a woodlouse challenge. They feel strangely neglected so far for what is probably the most accessible insect in the garden (and sometimes the house too). Plus it helps with tidying. We scoop up fallen leaves and old bits of wood and find some bits of bark at the park to go over the top. Then we go woodlouse hunting…
And we don’t find ANY! It’s really weird. A couple of teeny baby ones but no big ones at all. We go to all the places we normally see loads (under plant pots and wooden borders mainly). We find lots of other bugs on the way so in the end we decide to offer the home to a few worms and millipedes and a dozy looking moth. Hopefully they’ll enjoy and maybe the woodlice will make their own way there in the end.
90 – Drawing in the dew on the car windscreen
Wednesday 2 October. Sunny. 16°C
It’s very dewy at the moment. I’m wondering if dew is particularly an Autumn thing? I had a note to try a dew challenge in the spring but there wasn’t really any. Now everything is sopping every morning. I had ideas about trying to gather some for potions but a more obvious target for an outdoor activity appears.
B loves drawing on the car windscreen and welcomes an invitation. It’s not as good a material as the fog you get inside but it’ll do. Rubbish to photo though.
89 – Picking sloes (and making them into a fairy drink)
Wednesday 2 October. Sunny. 16°C
I’ve always envied people picking sloes. It looked fun but I have no idea what to do with them. Someone told me you put them in gin. The 365 Day Nature Play Challenge has taught me never to turn down a picking opportunity so we decide their time has come.
They’re really satisfying to pluck. B’s got fed up with worms in blackberries so it’s nice to have a new option. We do a lot of “don’t pick those”… “Or those” as we pass other trees and bushes on the way. All the poisonous berries seem to be coming out now.
Once picked we ponder options. In the end we decide to squish them and make a drink for Twinkle, the garden fairy. B would like me to point out that she doesn’t believe in Twinkle – but humours me! We find a little jug and squeeze them in after removing the little stones inside. Very satisfying.
88 – Leaf chasing.
Saturday 4 October. Very windy. 13°C
Ah, the joy of finding again something you’d forgotten. We’re in Mumbles on the windiest day of the year so far. The storm has passed but the leaves are still scuttling up and down the pavements. B and I are idly wondering if we can do something with the waves but the leaves steal our attention as soon as we’re out the car and nothing else is going to compete. As an outdoor autumn activity it’s got the gold star from us.
We chase them as they fly down the esplanade, trying different ones out to see which goes further. Finally we find our favourites – mine’s green and wide. B’s brown and thin. Then we race them. We almost lose them several times as they dance out of reach but clamber over rocks, kerbs and brambles to find them again. It becomes an obsession and we bring them home in the car in honour. Next time it’s windy in Autumn I’m going straight out to do that again.
86 – Leaf Scrunching
Tuesday 7 October. Cloudy. 16°C
I love a leaf scrunch. It’s the way you can find one anywhere you look and how quickly it becomes a compulsion. We should probably have saved it till we could head out in wellies and do it properly but we find ourselves falling into it out and about in town so go with it.
B is not such a fan at the moment. She’s had a dog poo incident! It’s not a good thing. It was a couple of years ago now but she’s still scarred. She refuses to go into the big piles of leaves littering the pavements but, with a bit of encouragement, becomes a connoisseur of the ‘scrunch’. The satisfying noise you get if you can find a nice crispy one. We compete down the pavements and across the park looking for the best.
77 – Catch a leaf!
Wednesday 15 October. Cloudy. 14°C
It’s mid October and our first outing to catch leaves. I still think it’s a bit early. B points at the large piles all round the pavements. The oak trees in the park are still mainly green though. We’re giving it a go anyway.
We head into the middle of the large group of oak trees, look up and wait for a leaf to fall. You need really good reflexes. B is MUCH better than me. She sees them better and is really quick at trying to catch them. I’m too slow and they all end up on the ground. We get a few which hit us and we still don’t catch them. Then B manages her first.
“I did it! I got one!”
We stand there for a good half an hour and could have stayed there longer but we suddenly have an idea. What if we shake the lower branches and get some to fall off. This is, technically, cheating but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun? We’re joined by a young friend which decides us.
We work out we can pull a big branch down, hold on, and then let go. It shoots up into the air, scattering leaves everywhere. It’s not long before catching leaves is forgotten and ‘pinging’ the branch is the order of the day. Youngster almost lifts off holding on to it. B is having a ball. Once one branch is exhausted there are so many more to try. She works out she can hang off them and swing too.
On the way home we realise that we never wished on the leaves we managed to catch (I got one in the end, and she got two). Better late than never.
52 – Gathering pine cones
Monday 10 November. Mixed. 14°C
We’re gathering pine cones today. There’s not that many pine trees near us and there’s only one road which we know has them… that’s ok though. It has plenty and it’s a nice place to be. We spend about ten minutes searching down one side of the road and then back on the other, anywhere under the trees orbit. We find about a dozen, all closed up and some a bit mud covered.
When we get home we wash them and put them on one side to wait for them to open up. Then we remember we have a box of them in the garage from last year. We’re really going to have to find something to make with them.
49 – Making pine cones into decorations
Thursday 13 November. Rainy. 13°C
A few days later, the pinecones have dried and we’re ready to decorate. I want to make something for the Christmas tree so I get some paper coated wire, leaves, glitter, glue and conkers and have a go at making some pinecone people.
B is more ambitious. She wants to make a forest of Christmas trees. We paint pinecones dark green and they look surprisingly good just from that. We let one lot dry and then add glue, glitter and cotton wool. Then we try painting one and adding the glitter and cotton wool before it dries. Both worked.
50 – Picking leaves and making pictures
Wednesday 12 November. Mixed. 14°C
I thought the prettiest leaves would have gone by now but it turns out i was very wrong. In the local park, the tree with the lovely multi-coloured leaves is looking barer but they’re all on the ground still in good condition. B and I decide there’s always room for another autumn leaf challenge!
We collect all the ones we think are pretty… which fill a bag. When we get home we spread them out on paper on the kitchen table so they can dry. The kitten thinks this is marvellous and adopts them.
When dry we wonder what we can do with them. I have a go at a little figure. It’s really easy. B’s friend K suggests a butterfly, which is a lot of fun, and we do a little house too. It’s mainly cutting. We don’t get round to gluing them, though we could have. It’s more fun cutting out shapes and seeing what they’ll make.
